subaru360

I did some work on the wiring today it's mostly done. I ran almost all new wires and fused all the circuits. I need to pick up a battery and and alternator for it now. Next week I'm doing the brakes. I'm going to make a seperate thread with pics of the brakes, I'm not sure exactly what it has, I might need some help with ID on them.

I hope this isn't dexcool. That stuff is the worst. I was a GM dealer tech for over 10 years. Lets just say I made a lot of money off dexcool related problems.

Use brake clean.

That's a fuel cell in the trunk. I haven't decided where to put the battery yet. I might put a lightweight race battery on the spare tire shelf under the hood, or else it's going on the passenger side floor. The battery was mounted on a piece of folded over sheetmetal under the hood.

Most of the stuff is connected to the engine. I'm waiting on the weber carb kit to come in. I'm working on rewiring everything now, I cut all the old wiring out, it was a mess. There was no factory harness in it, just wires everywhere randomly connected. I should finish all the engine work this week and do the brakes next. Does anyone have a 72 FSM with a wiring diagram? I need to know what wire does what for the wipers. More pics.

If anything turns out to be bad with your engine, I have a complete EA81 here with a new factory gasket set to go with it. It's a leftover from the superoo project.

Hope you guys aren't disapointed. It might not be much to look at if you expect a restored show car. The owner of the car told he wants to keep it mostly as found. I'm just doing all the mechanical work to get it running and stopping. But if you like old school you will like this.

Thanks, this thing is really coming along now. I will post more pics tonight. That's my beater suburban, parts hauler, tow vehicle etc. It's got 230k and runs like new, doesn't leak or burn anything. But it has rust holes big enough to put your hand threw. Oh yeah and a 3" lift with 33's, headers and dual exhaust. It doesn't get used much at 10 MPG.

Lots of good progress to report. EA71 is all put together and in the car along with the 2wd trans. It was kind of a pain to deal with. Somebody had welded plates to the engine mounts to move the engine forwards, probably from when it had a VW trans in it. I had to cut all that out to get the engine to sit right. It's also got solid engine mounts in it. The Gen 2 trans I got for it didn't have anywhere for a Gen 1 trans mount to bolt to. Considering that it has solid engine mounts anyway, I made a solid trans mount for it also out of angle iron bolted to where the shifter bracket bolts on the trans and bolted to the back of the crossmember. I got the Gen 2 shifter to work in the car ok. I cut some off the plate that the shift lever sits on and bolted that to the floorpan. There is a huge gaping hole in the trans tunnel from the guy who tried to install a D/R 4wd trans in the car. :-\

Yes it's RTV, just put a little on when you put it back together. Put some at the corners of the caps and on the little half moon pieces under the valve covers also.

I think the valves are in different places. On the dual port it should be E,I,I,E and the single port is I,E,E,I I'm sure if I'm wrong somebody who knows more will correct me.

That engine will not run on pump gas. You'd have to measure the cc's of the head and know the volume of the piston dome to be sure, but I would estimate 11:1 or 12:1 compression. You'd need to run it on race gas. Even more so if it has a stock cam in it. A bigger cam will bleed off some cylinder pressure at lower speed and you might get away with less octane. The standard thread length spark plug should work. When assembling just put a bit of modeling clay on the top of the piston. Install the head and spark plug. Spin the engine over and pull the head back off. Measure the thickness of the clay and you will know how much clearance there is. You may need to index the spark plug. To do that you use different thickness washers to line the electode up so it is in the notch in the piston. It will however need a colder heat range spark plug.

Check the oil seperator plate. They always leak. It's on the back of the engine under the flywheel. Either reseal it or even better replace it with the updated metal one from Subaru, it's cheap. I do it with every HG job I do, since the engine is out anyway and they always are leaking.

I didn't know that. That explains why I've never seen one for sale. Maybe I will build one someday then.

Maybe. Next time it happens, try turning the wheel slightly and see if it goes away. If it does, could be a wheel bearing.

Here's the engine bay with all the old wiring and hoses mess pulled out, degreased and pressure washed. Then the row of EA's left to right- EA71 I got this morning that is going in the car with fresh gaskets, EA81 I wanted to put in, but didn't match the bellhousing pattern and the EA63 already back together, would need a lot of work. If anyone is looking for an EA81 this one is nice, I even have a new headgaskets for it, you can buy it real cheap, money will go back into the car. Tomorrow is cleaning parts day, get it all ready to go back together.

I would do just the one complete axle. I don't bother with replacing just boots much. You'll probably be ok with just one if the other isn't making noise or anything. Usually the right inner boot goes bad from heat, being so close to the converter.

Too bad you aren't closer, I do the kind of work you are looking for. It's tough trying to make a living as a flat rate mechanic, you have to cut corners and pick and choose easy work to make money. I did all that for a long time. I finally gave up and dropped out of the rat race and started working on my own. Now I just do the work I enjoy (like the 72 GL I'm doing now) take my time and do things right. I just charge enough to pay my bills, life is good.

I got the EA71 this morning from the same 80 wagon I got the trans from. It only had 90,000 on it. I pulled the heads off and it looks nice inside. I don't know if I'm going to split the case or not, probably not, it looks good to go with fresh gaskets. If I did split the case I could put the bigger cam in it out of the EA63 along with the pushrods and rockers from that engine. EA63 and EA71 take the same valvetrain part right? Anyone know for sure? But the cam is an unknown, I don't know the specs on it. I could measure the lift and put a degree wheel on it and get the duration fairly close. I don't know if it was ground with the supercharger in mind or what. I'm thinking not worth it, I just want it to run well. Putting an unknown old school cam in it might not be a bright idea. I have to run out and get batteries for my camera and take pics of all this.

Looks like aftermarket springs and retainers. High compression pistons. They cut down the top center 2 head studs for the modified heads. It has stock pushrods, you'd have to measure the lift to see if it has a bigger cam. Kind of funny if it has a bigger cam with the stock pushrods. The EA63 I just took apart with a cam in it had custom solid pushrods and they ground the rockers smooth, but standard valve springs and retainers. I don't think that oil pan would fit any subie frame. I'm guessing this was in some kind of sand rail or something. The cylinders don't look so good. You might be able to hone it and put new rings in it, or you might need new block halves. Oh and that is an older EA71 block, I'm working on an 80 EA71 and the block is different.

The 79 looks nice. If it was automatic, I would consider it. My girlfriend wants a gen 1 or gen 2 4wd automatic wagon preferably with the plaid seats. I'm going to Maine next weekend too. Oh well.

The EA63 isn't horrible, but it's got detonation damage. I would post a pic but my camera has dead batteries. I'll do it soon. I just found out I goofed. The trans I got won't work with the EA81. I grabbed the bellhousing from the car I got it out of, it was an EA71. The bellhousing won't bolt to the EA81. I guess I should go back and grab the EA71 from the junkyard also.

The owner told me to get it to run and drive for him, do what I think is best. If it was mine I would have done an EJ22, but he wanted to stay with a carb and something that looks more original. Other than that it's up to me what to do. The EA63 is done for. It must have been detonating bad with the supercharger. I found a melted spark plug. I tore it down and one head is melted in the chamber, the top of one piston is on the way out. It's got a couple of valves starting to burn and one cylinder is pitted from sitting. It's just got stock pistons, it does have an aftermarket cam, there is an old school sticker on the car for it too. The EA81 on the other hand is in nice shape. No wear in the cylinders, everything looks good. I'm putting it back together with all fresh factory gaskets and putting a weber on it. That's what's going in the car. I know people like the supercharger, but it's small and unreliable, it obviously killed the EA63. It was made in the 50's for 1200cc VW's and it's too small for an EA63 no less an EA81. They don't make any real boost anyway. The guy who owns the car isn't really into subies, he's a vw guy. I just want the car to run well for him and be reliable.

I must have been half asleep when I typed that reply, I don't think I spelled one word right. Anyway, another tip is to take a socket and hammer and give it a quick tap on the retainer before you use the compresor. This will break the keepers loose and make it easier to remove them with the compressor. I don't know if pvc pipe will hold up, might want to make it out of iron pipe or an old socket.

If you do have to splice the wiring, splice it on the harness side. The sensor side of the wiring has a shield wire in it and shouldn't be spliced.